- thrown away; rejected; discarded: Out of a few pieces of castoff clothing she made herself a presentable new outfit.
- a person or thing that has been thrown away or rejected: I refuse to accept second hand merchandise—some other person's castoffs.Many immigrants felt like castoffs, marginalized by national and global economic forces.
- the estimate by a compositor of how many pages copy will occupy when set in type.
- to reject or discard: He soon cast off the shackles of his repressive upbringing.
- to let go or let loose, as a vessel or its ropes from a mooring; set sail or begin a voyage: We were about to cast off on a three-day cruise along the coast of British Columbia.
- to make (the final stitches) in a piece of knitting and remove them from the needle.
- to determine how much space or type will be occupied by (a given amount of text).
- to shed or cast: Like leaves on an oak tree, antlers are cast off and then regrown every year.
- to throw (a falcon) off from the fist to pursue game.
- thrown away; abandoned
- a person or thing that has been discarded or abandoned
- an estimate of the amount of space that a piece of copy will occupy when printed in a particular size and style of type
- to remove (mooring lines) that hold (a vessel) to a dock
- to knot (a row of stitches, esp the final row) in finishing off knitted or woven material
- to estimate the amount of space that will be taken up by (a book, piece of copy, etc) when it is printed in a particular size and style of type
- (in Scottish country dancing) to perform a progressive movement during which each partner of a couple dances separately behind one line of the set and then reunites with the other in their original position in the set or in a new position
